Pro-McCain writer ("Citizen McCain" 2002) now says, "He's lost me"

[ailsagirl]

=snip=

McCain’s caving in to this “compromise” did it for me. This was further evidence that the former free-spirited, supposedly principled, maverick was morphing into just another panderer – to Bush and the Republican Party’s conservative base.

Other aspects of McCain, including his temperament, began to trouble me. He seemed disturbingly bellicose. He gave the Iraq war unflagging support no matter the facts. He still talks about “winning” the war, though George W. Bush gave that up some time ago. As the war became increasingly unpopular, he employed the useful technique of blaming its execution rather than recognizing the misconceptions that had led him to be one of the most enthusiastic champions of the war in the first place.

=snip=

McCain’s recent conduct of his campaign – his willingness to lie repeatedly (including in his acceptance speech) and to play Russian roulette with the vice-presidency, in order to fulfill his long-held ambition – has reinforced my earlier, and growing, sense that John McCain is not a principled man. In fact, it’s not clear who he is.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13541.html

[ailsagirl]

1. kick

[Kalyke]

2. You'd get more views if you included the fact that the writer is`

Elizabeth Drew.

She's well respected amongst the Clarkies here.

[ailsagirl]

8. Ah... thanks but I can't change the post now...

[Captiosus]

3. McCain's own words says it all

"I didn’t decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president."

From the horse's mouth in his own book.
He's running for President merely to satisfy his own ambition and ego, not to serve the people of the country. He doesn't really care about reforms or patriotism. His own mouth just bore him out to be a self-serving flip-flopper who will do whatever it takes to win.

This quote should be spread like wildfire.

[dgibby]

6. that quote

would make a great campaign ad for Obama. K&R

[Zenlitened]

4. K&R.

:dem:

[ailsagirl]

5. kick

[inna]

7. another rat jumps ship.... my fave is this one though:

As the Lies Pile Up, McCain’s Former Fans Increasingly Repulsed by the Cynicism

Meanwhile, one by one, the weight of this evidence has demonstrated to McCain's former fans what a dishonorable, cynical creature John McCain has become. There was Mike Murphy, caught on live mike, admitting that the selection of Sarah Palin was cynical and gimmicky. And Joe Klein, labeling McCain's pro-predator attack on Obama as "one of the sleaziest ads I've ever seen in presidential politics." Even Mark Halperin called last nights piggy lipstick stunt the lowpoint of this campaign.

Sully is just the latest of former McCain fans to grow utterly disgusted with this new cynical creature.

Andrew Sullivan:

For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil.

McCain has demonstrated in the last two months that he does not have the character to be president of the United States. And that is why it is more important than ever to ensure that Barack Obama is the next president. The alternative is now unthinkable. And McCain - no one else - has proved it.

These former fans may well be the biggest threat to McCain's campaign. There's nothing like a lover scorned and no one to better describe the profound depths of McCain's cynicism than to have his former boosters describe their newfound revulsion.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/09/10/as-the-lies-pile-up-mccains-former-fans-increasingly-revulsed-by-the-cynicism/

[ailsagirl]

9. Good one... thanks